Urban public universities play a critical role in the higher education missions of access and success of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged populations. Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) also attract similar scholarly attention to understand the impact of these institutions on marginalized and underrepresented racial and ethnic students. Most research with this focus has, however, concentrated on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), where positive effects on a large spectrum of student outcomes have been well documented. The amount of research about the impact of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and/or their educational practices on various college outcomes, including persistence and academic achievement, is limited and inconsistent. Focusing on a single institution that combines its urban location and the HSI status creates a critically important opportunity to examine its educational practices, such as a first-year seminar (FYS), and its impact on retention and first-year academic achievement for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Therefore, due to the extra challenge of serving diverse student populations in urban locations and calls for more research in specific locations and institutional types, it is important to understand the extent to which FYSs serve their students on urban Hispanic-Serving campuses. This study aims to contribute to the line of inquiry about the impact of FYSs at a large urban HSI on the first-to-second year retention and first-year GPA of students of color and contribute to relatively scarce literature.